Equatorial Guinea / Africa

  
Cartoonist Ramón Nsé Esono Ebalé, pictured in court in February 2018. The journalist was acquitted and released from jail but authorities in Equatorial Guinea have not renewed his passport, which means Esono Ebalé cannot return to El Salvador. (AFP/Samuel Obiang)

CPJ joins call for Equatorial Guinea to renew cartoonist’s passport

CPJ, along with eight other human rights organizations, today urged the government of Equatorial Guinea to renew without further delay the passport of acclaimed cartoonist Ramón Nsé Esono Ebalé.

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CPJ board member Clarence Page, right, speaks  at a panel Wednesday organized by the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights in partnership with CPJ in Washington, D.C. (CPJ/Rachael Levy)

First US-Africa summit short on press freedom, other human rights

Top African and U.S. leaders are meeting next week in Washington in a first-of-its-kind summit focused on African development. But critics argue the summit is flawed in design, overlooking human rights such as freedom of expression and barring civil society actors from bilateral discussions.

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Equatorial Guinea President Teodoro Obiang (Reuters/James Akena)

Equatorial Guinea bars reporter from press freedom debate

To commemorate World Press Freedom Day on May 3, CPJ published a list of the 10 most censored countries, citing Equatorial Guinea as the fifth worst offender. In response, the Minister of Information and government spokesperson, Jerónimo Osa Osa Ecoro, dismissed the analysis of the country’s press situation as biased.”We are going to communicate with…

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Iran has invested in technology with the explicit intent of restricting Internet access. (Reuters/Caren Firouz)

Most censored nations each distort the Net in own way

One big reason for the Internet’s success is its role as a universal standard, interoperable across the world. The data packets that leave your computer in Botswana are the same as those which arrive in Barbados. The same is increasingly true of modern mobile networks. Standards are converging: You can use your phone, access an…

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Chinese official Jia Qinglin, fifth from left, hands over keys to the China-built African Union headquarters to AU Chairman and Equatorial Guinea President Theodoro Obiang. (AFP/Tony Karumba)

China not most censored, but may be most ambitious

China didn’t make the cut for our 10 most censored countries. While the Chinese Communist Party’s censorship apparatus is notorious, journalists and Internet users work hard to overcome the restrictions. Nations like Eritrea and North Korea lack that dynamism.

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People walk near a portrait of Equatorial Guinea's President Teodoro Obiang along a street in Malabo. (Reuters/Luc Gnago)

Equatorial Guinea’s press silent on unrest in Mali, Syria

While Mali remains in global headlines with a March 22 military coup and rebel claims of an independent state, citizens in Equatorial Guinea are kept in the dark about the crisis unless they have access to international media, CPJ has gathered from interviews with journalists and a government spokesman.

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Obiang prize shelved… for now… again

UNESCO’s executive board Tuesday again deferred action on the life sciences prize named after and funded by President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo of Equatorial Guinea. The Committee to Protect Journalists joined with other human rights organizations to call on the board to eliminate the prize permanently.

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Obiang prize goes down to the wire

Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo is a stubborn man.  In 2008, the president of Equatorial Guinea made a $3 million donation to UNESCO to underwrite a prize in the life sciences. But a groundswell of opposition from human rights groups, press freedom organizations, and governments appalled by Obiang’s record of kleptocracy and human rights abuses helped…

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UNESCO must reject Obiang prize bid

The Committee to Protect Journalists joined with eight other human rights organizations today in opposing the bid for a UNESCO life sciences prize named after Equatorial Guinea President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo. CPJ and other groups have consistently voiced their opposition to this prize, saying that Equatorial Guinea’s human rights record undercuts the UNESCO mission.…

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A man sets up a satellite dish in Zimbabwe, where state news is severely restricted on the ongoing protests in the Middle East, but where CNN is still accessible. (AP)

Sub-Saharan Africa censors Mideast protests

As news of Middle Eastern and North African protests swirl around the globe, satellite television and the Internet prove vital sources of information for Africans as governments fearful of an informed citizenry and a free press such as in Eritrea, Equatorial Guinea, and Zimbabwe impose total news blackouts on the developments.

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